O. Mersmann - The microbenchmark package
Slides and code (link).
SURGEON GENERAL’s WARNING: Microbenchmarks can lead to a distorted view of reality and massive loss of productivity
For a higher-order benchmarking package check out the rbenchmark package on R (suggestion from the speaker).
Why do we need micro-benchmarking? A simple example showed that it is currently very difficult to benchmark
f= function() NULL using
system.time. Microbenchmark has a very simple interface. Unlike system.time, MB measures the times of each individual function call. Produces summary statistics and plots.
How does microbenchmark() work?
- Precision of clock is unknown: clock could drift, timing might be zero, might observe discrete values;
- Clock only measures elapsed time. Some of this time may not actually be the R process.
- More plotting functions;
- Possibly use OS API;
- Better diagnostic messages;
- Estimate clock granularity.
Paul Murrell – Vector image processing
PDF -> R -> SVG
grid.animate, .garnish, .hyperlink, .scriptto make the picture interactive.